The Black Apple

Yesterday, I mentioned a super awesome Etsy artist named Emily Martin.  Well today I'm going to rave about her a little bit more!

First of all, if you don't know about Etsy, let me fill you in. It's an awesome site where artists can buy and sell their creations. You remember that artsy kid that you sat next to in high school that drew the incredible sketches instead of paying attention in 8 AM algebra? Yeah, he's probably selling his pictures on here now. You won't find any "major" artists on this site, but you may discover the next big thing. There's paintings, jewelry, arts and crafts... pretty much anything you can think of you can find here. Best of all, most of stuff is uber-inexpensive. My adorable hedgies? Twenty-two bucks - what a steal! The most expensive thing that I've stumbled across on the site has been $275 for a custom oil portrait, and even that's a deal.

Okay, enough about Etsy... I'm sure that I'll be raving about other artists as I wander across them!

Emily's fantastic site is called The Black Apple. She has anything from original prints to custom-made stationery to hand-sewn dolls. This girl is super-crafty. I'm pretty sure that she could make just about anything she wanted to. So here's a few of my favorite things off her site: 

This is an ultra-cute package of postcards that she calls As Long as I Have You. Lately I've become a huge fan of old-school snail mail. Remember when checking the mailbox was fun and it wasn't stuffed full of bills? Me neither. But I'm in my first long-distance relationship, and I think that these would be perfect for sending sweet love notes to my adorable boyfriend. PLUS, if you look in the bottom right corner, there is... that's right... a hedgehog! How perfectly moi!

This adorable collection of four prints is  based on Alice in Wonder- land. We have Alice, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts. I love this because when I envision Alice in Wonder- land, it's not super cutesy Disney Alice, it's the way that I feel like Lewis Carroll would have wanted it to be: slightly off-kilter and a little eerie. I mean, let's be honest about what the Caterpillar was smoking - this might not be the kiddie story that Walt Disney had in mind! That's what I love about Emily's artwork - it manages to have an innocence to it, but there's always something a little... odd... about the characters. So I think this is awesome, and I'm kinda thinking I might send it to my friend who's playing Alice on a Disney cruise right now... don't ask!

 

This sweet little sketch is called  I've Learned to Clip My Wings. I can't figure out how to make it any clearer, but the text coming out of her pigtail reads "I've learned to clip my wings and soften my ways." It comes from a song called It Amazes Me that everybody from Tony Bennett to Liza "with a Z!" Minnelli has covered. Now, I kinda have a thing for angel wings and so I think this little girl's shedding wings are amazing.. Plus j'adore this quote. I feel like Angela Chase (Claire Danes in My So-Called Life... god I miss that show) would have drawn something like this after having a fight with her parents and dreaming about Jared Leto.

Okay I have to stop now or I'm going to buy out her store!

One of the things that I will tell you about Emily's Etsy shop - she sells out fast. Of course, I have the inside track to help you out - she has a blog! She's pretty good about updating when she adds new things to the shop, so if you check regularly you should be good. She's also pretty fashion-y too... and has another blog for that! What can't this girl do?

Enjoy!